Chapter 3 - Echoes of a Summer Lost
As the limousine carried Elena toward the grand ballroom, she closed her eyes, letting the hum of the engine lull her into the past. Before the wheelchair. Before Julian. Before her family's crushing expectations. She remembered a summer day, the heat radiating off the asphalt as her vintage convertible broke down on a dusty country road. She remembered the man who had pulled up in a beat-up truck, stepping out with a wrench in his hand and a smile that made her heart skip a beat. Leo. He didn't care about her last name. He didn't care about her trust fund. He had looked at her like she was the only woman in the world.
They had spent that entire summer in a secret paradise. He had taken her to a hidden field of wild daisies, laughing as the sun set over the horizon. He had promised her, with a simple daisy tucked behind her ear, that he would protect her forever. Then came the night of the storm. Her family had found out. Julian, the furious suitor, had tracked them down. The memory always stopped there, ending in a violent crash of metal and the taste of blood. When she woke up in the hospital, her family stood over her, telling her Leo had been drunk. Telling her Leo was dead. A tear slipped down Elena's cheek as the limousine came to a halt. She quickly wiped it away. She was not allowed to cry tonight. She had to play the perfect, broken bride.
